Do you think your vote's going to count this year? Think again. Unless you take action now, your vote may already be lost. Award-winning investigative journalist Greg Palast, who uncovered exactly how the election was "won" in 2000, teamed up with activist, attorney, broadcaster and writer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. to find out if democracy was in a better state eight years on. In their report, which was published this month in Rolling Stone, they concluded that the 2008 Election had already been stolen. They are now challenging you to steal it back.

"If Democrats are to win the 2008 election, they must not simply beat John McCain at the polls -- they must beat him by a margin that exceeds the level of GOP vote tampering," Palast and Kennedy summarized. But all is not lost -- yet. To this end, the dynamic duo prepared an adult comic, Steal Back Your Vote, which outlines the six ways these thieves (who would call themselves "patriots") are trying to deprive you of your vote, and empowers you with seven ways you can snatch it back.

We checked in with Palast, a self-styled Sam Spade-like detective turned writer (he started out as a corporate investigator), to get the skinny on this 2008 election crime wave (and, no, the criminals aren't members of ACORN).

Nicole Powers: What first set you off on the trail of voter fraud?

Greg Palast: The smell of money and the scent of mendacity. I was investigating the Bush family fortunes and wrote an article for the London Observer, where I had a column called The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. Going through the Bush family fortune, like their bloody little gold mining operation in Africa for example, I came across a connection to a company called ChoicePoint. That lead me to discover that that company was purging the voter roles of Florida under a contract with a lady named Katherine Harris, the Secretary of State. They won a contract, a bid contract with the state, with the highest bid.

Then I noticed, this was the week of the 2000 election, that black people were coming before the BBC cameras and saying, "We can't vote. Our name is missing from the voter role." So, in my conspiracy nut mind, I said, "Gee, there must be a computer program wiping out black voters off the voter roles." I got the computer discs from Katherine Harris' office and there it was: voters matched by race and tagged as felons. Their only crime was voting while black. Ninety-four thousand people; not one single criminal voter out of ninety-four thousand voters. That was the election that was decided technically by five hundred votes. So it was about following the money; it was not about following the votes.

NP: That was back in 2000.

GP: That was in 2000. So now I'm back on the trail...Bobby Kennedy, based on my research on the 2004 election, wrote an article for Rolling Stone about how the Ohio election was shop-lifted. So then we got together and decided to find out if they're stealing this election. We decided, no, they're not going the steal it -- they have stolen it.

Through massive purges, they've been knocking off voters left and right. 2.7 million voters knocked off the voter roles. [In] Colorado one in five voters have had their names disappear. Obama thinks he's going to win in Colorado, because he had the convention there, they got all these new Hispanic voters -- that's if they're allowed to vote. People are going by the polls; polls mean nothing...They're asking people how they voted -- they don't know if their vote counted.

Last election we had 3 million people who were challenged, which was completely unreported. These are official statistics. 3 million people challenged, given something called a provisional ballot, which is like a bouncing, bogus ballot, and then a million of those were thrown in the garbage. That's going to happen again, except double that number...

NP: You mentioned that Robert had read your articles, how did you end up working together?

GP: Bobby actually read my book, Armed Madhouse, where I uncovered the secret plans for the oil fields of Iraq. He was knocked out by the investigative and undercover stories we did regarding globalization, environment and Iraq, and then he started reading the election stuff...He has a radio show on Air America, so he originally brought me on Air America to basically go through my book chapter by chapter over five weeks and lay it out, from Iraq to the secret war in Venezuela, you name it, all the evils, and then of course his own field of election fraud. He said, "Let's team up." So we went back to Rolling Stone with a new article.

NP: One of the things I found fascinating, in it's simplicity and stupidity, is the story of the emails that you intercepted that were intended for George Bush.

GP: Well here's what happened. Karl Rove has no computer, because he's a computer expert, he knows that that's just trouble. But his assistant, Tim Griffin, who's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, he was sending emails basically with an illegal scheme to knock off black voters. I mean this is just raw, ugly, felonious activity, and I say that in the most cautious terms. This guy, he was mailing his internal Republican Party emails and campaign emails, marked confidential, to George W Bush dot O-R-G instead of George W Bush dot com. O-R-G, that site is a joke site owned by a friend of mine who started scooping up these emails and just forwarding them to me. We spent untold time cracking these things. Because they don't say,"Hey, here's how we're stealing the election." They say, "Here's a caging list, here's a caging list, here's another caging list." What the heck is a caging list?

NP: And the emails actually had the caging lists attached?

GP: Yes they did. We mapped them and figured out what they were, challenged them with it on camera. First they said, "These are just our donor lists." You're talking about mens' shelters right?

But the evil, evil thing is what they were doing was mailing letters to people at their registration addresses, their voting addresses. When the letter came back undelivered, because it said, "Do Not Forward," they would challenge the voter as a fraudulent voter. Well, they were sending letters to black soldiers. Why wouldn't a black soldier be at home, Hmmn Mr. Bush? Go to Baghdad and lose your vote. Mission accomplished! That's what it was all about.

NP: Sending the letters to homeless shelters was bad enough, but sending the letters to the troops who are busy serving a Republican government was the lowest.

GP: They get lower. This year they started sending them to foreclosed homeowners. Just because you lose your home, you don't lose your vote. You can still vote, even if you're foreclosed, but you just don't get your mail. It's about as creepy as you get. Right now, they're taking a national tragedy of 3 million foreclosed families, and they're turning it into an electoral bonanza.

People are going to walk in in swing states like Colorado and New Mexico and find their names are missing. We just went to New Mexico where we met with the Election Supervisor in San Miguel County -- his name was purged. It's insane!

What is purging? As far as I know, Britain and other countries don't have this stuff where politicians are allowed to go through the voting roles, secretaries of state, these are all political hacks, and remove voters they consider to be suspicious just on the basis of the data file there. They are removing tons of voters in certain states...It's not anything like what we're told American democracy should be in our little eighth grade class.

NP: Talk a little bit about these provisional ballots because many people think they work like the real thing.

GP: Yes, I mean they do keep some records of these things, about half the states reported their provisional ballots, and one in three get thrown away. Now the idea is to stop voting fraud. Well, if someone's cast a fraudulent ballot you shouldn't throw away their ballot, you should go arrest them. But they threw out 1.1 million ballots. Do we really have a monster crime wave in America of a million fraudulent voters? No. They throw them away. You get that provisional ballot, you're told, "Oh, we'll check your registration later."

They give them out, by the way, mostly to minority and new voters. I just spoke in Palm Springs, over a hundred people at a gathering. I asked how many people voted in the primary, in the election this year. Just about everyone raised their hand. I said, "How many people got provisional ballots?" There were two black guys in the audience. They were the only two that raised their hands. I knew that before I asked the question. That's exactly how it works.

NP: This challenge system, you go to vote and someone can just walk up and challenge you?

GP: Some pimply little fuckface from the Republican Party, and I'm not singling out the Republicans because I'm a Democrat, because I'm not. I can't stand the Democrats, OK. But some pimply little fuckface comes in, there's a bunch of black people waiting in line for three hours and he says, "That one shouldn't vote, and that one shouldn't vote, and that one shouldn't vote." Because he's got his little Blackberry filled up with things like, "Oh, well we've got a returned address. We sent a letter to that guy's house and it came back undelivered." Well the guy's moved down the street -- he can still vote. The guy's got foreclosed and he's living with his uncle -- he can still vote. The guy serving in Iraq...British people, people who live in democracies don't understand the system of someone standing in the polling place saying, "That person shouldn't vote."

NP: Who's appointed these people?

GP: They're in two groups, mostly they're actually appointed as so-called poll watchers by the Republican Party. What they've done is turned everything into this Orwellian inverse. Poll watchers used to be people who'd make sure that everyone got a chance to vote, each of the political parties made sure that there was no problem with people voting.

I have to say the Democrats don't do this OK. It's not a partisan issue, the Democrats by policy don't do this for good reason, the more people that vote, the more votes are Democrat -- especially in black areas, in minority areas.

Like we just saw in Indiana in February; Ten nuns were denied the right to vote because under the new ID laws they didn't have the right ID because they were all in their eighties and nineties and their driver's licenses has expired -- but they hadn't expired yet -- but they couldn't vote. It was a cute story that some media picked up. What the media didn't pick up was that a hundred and forty-three thousand other voters were denied the right to vote, and it's mostly minority voters who don't have passports.

...These new ID laws are not about preventing voter fraud because Mickey Mouse has never shown up to vote. They're about preventing people from voting. That's what the whole game is about.

NP: Obviously, at this late stage, there's certain things people can't do; voter registration is now closed. So if you check yourself on the register, what can you do if you find you're not there?

GP: Most people who are purged are actually still somewhere in the system, so-called inactive voters. You can resurrect your registration by going in and challenging your purge.

That's why I want people to vote early. Voting is now. In places like Ohio, Indiana and Florida, you can vote now. Please do so. You're out of your mind if you wait. It's going to be the biggest turnout in American history. You're going to have a six hour wait in line. Go in to early voting stations now. You can get that info online from your county election official.

So complain that your registration should be active, not inactive. People who are purged stay on the roles but usually are marked "felon" or "inactive voter" or "wrong address." It's usually somehow still there. Like anything else, scream bloody murder, you get the ballot. Most of the people I know who have actually complained have got their ballot back.

NP: So you can get your vote restored.

GP: Well two things will happen. The first thing they'll do is try and give you a provisional ballot. They'll say, "We'll give you a provisional ballot and count it later." No they won't. If they've already challenged your vote, your vote is toast if you don't get a real ballot. The second thing is, you want to check your registration and vote early to make sure you have the right ID.

This is a whole new thing that we didn't have to have before. This is a whole new game, that you have to have IDs which are government photo IDs that have an expiration date that's current. That's not in every state, in some states, except for new voters. For the first time in American history, new voters are treated as second-class citizens.

For example, a first time voter in Florida, you'll love this, has to put in a photocopy of their ID if they mail in their ballot. A friend of mine lost their vote because she put her photo ID into the envelope as required, very few people even know they have to do this, but she didn't put the ID in a separate envelope inside the ballot envelope.

This is kind of rub your head and pat your stomach while you're voting or they lose your vote. So the vote was thrown out because the photo ID was with the ballot as opposed to a separate envelope within the ballot envelope. Love that? Of course, they don't provide such an envelope for you. They don't even tell you what you're supposed to do.

NP: How did your friend know that she got rejected?

GP: In her case she got a letter. You have to understand there are two states that are basically mail in ballot states: Oregon and Washington. In Washington and Oregon if you make a mistake, they will notify you and give you a chance to correct it because they are not vicious states. But, you know, they're not swing states.

Other states, you make a mistake on your mail in ballot, kiss it goodbye. Maybe you'll be lucky and they'll let you know that they've burnt your ballot. Actually, it's quite surprising, most states and most counties just don't even tell you. You won't even know that your vote just got toasted. So don't mail it in for God's sake. Put down that stamp and no one gets hurt.

NP: Obviously, no matter how much you tell people to vote early, there's going to be a lot of people there on election night.

GP: Probably about ninety million.

NP: And it's going to be chaotic. I understand if and when you get challenged on election night the burden of proof is technically on the challenger.

GP: Not any more. That's one of the evil things in the Help America Vote Act. In the old days they used to have what they called affidavit ballots. If you were challenged, you filed an affidavit ballot saying, "I'm a legal voter," and your vote counted unless someone could absolutely prove you were a fraudulent voter. Those votes got counted.

Now a provisional ballot is different. That's why I'm telling people not to take these bogus, bouncing, bullshit ballots. Provisional ballots are not counted out of almost any objection, if it doesn't meet any number of tests that they decide on. It's totally quixotic; It's up to the precinct official, it's up to the county official.

They'll say they don't like your signature. It doesn't quite match your prior signature. They've knocked out literally hundreds of thousands of voters on wrong signature. If people are forging a signature, arrest them. Don't take away their vote. Arrest them. But they don't do that because they know it's not forgery.

This is the type of problem that you run into. It's all under this completely fucking falsely, evily named Help America To Vote Act. When George Bush tells you he's going to help you vote, you better get scared.

NP: Moving beyond the election, let's envision that there's another steal, Ohio, Florida, and perhaps a couple of other states.

GP: Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, will be stolen. I'm not sure about New Mexico. They're stealing it blind, but it may not be enough.

NP: I understand whole streets are randomly going missing in New Mexico.

GP: Yeah.

NP: They're not even being very subtle about it.

GP: Like I say, it's racial. If it were random it wouldn't matter. It's not random, it's racial and it's class war.

NP: So if the GOP does get the victory you're predicting because of the shenanigans, do you think the people and Congress will rise up?

GP: I hope so. I hope that Americans in our tiny little Fox-ified, mole rat brains will get off our fucking asses and throw the remote controls out the window and say, "Enough is enough."

We've been ruled by an unelected junta for eight years, and that's what we have to face, and not pretend it's something else. We cannot survive another four years. It's not about whether it's McCain or Obama, it's a question of when you have an unelected government. As the Wall Street Journal said about China when all those thousands of people died in the earthquakes, they said, "An unelected government is an unaccountable government."

I'm telling you right now, if Bush hadn't stolen that election, New Orleans wouldn't have drowned. A government that doesn't care about its electorate drowning is going to let people die. That's what happens. When you feel you're accountable to the electorate, when you are in a democracy, you don't just let people die. So this is a life and death thing that I hope people will recognize, and I hope people react.

I'm not talking about violence, because you know they're already moving troops back from Iraq in case of civil disturbance. That's exactly what they want, that type of "let's go smash some store windows because we're upset in Milwaukee." I'm talking about what's happening in other nations where people stand up and say, "We're not going to work today. We're going to work for our country. We're going to all go and gather at the county hall and we're not moving until they count all the votes."

November five is the most important day, not November fourth. It's not the voting, it's the vote counting.

NP: Absolutely.

GP: A hundred and fifty-five thousand votes were cast and not counted in New Mexico in '04. We had a hundred and seventy-nine thousand votes cast and not counted in Florida in 2000. People don't understand it. It wasn't about a recount. It was about a hundred and seventy-nine thousand votes that were literally never counted. We have to start counting votes in America. Even the Ukraine got it. People came out in the street when they didn't count the votes. Serbia they got it, you know. Peru they got it. My god, why can't we get it in Colorado Springs?

NP: If the election is stolen, do you think it's time for the foreign community to step in and take diplomatic action?

GP: Well, you know, that was one of the things that happened when people went into the street in Serbia and in Peru and the Ukraine, where we saw the fiddled vote counts, the international community said, "We're not recognizing governments that count their own ballots the way that they feel like it." Yet the international community stood by while George Bush's brother counted the votes, like Uganda! And the diplomatic community is being diplomatic -- well maybe they should be a little less diplomatic.

I would hope that the world community would say, "Fuck this! We get bullied by America. They've got big guns, they've got big bombs, they've got banks that blow themselves up that are worse than bombs, they're taking everyone with them. We cannot stand by while America commits electoral suicide."

The international community has absolute responsibility here. Instead they're just like the Democratic Party, and elites all over, they stand there and just look at their shoes and whistle. You've got a bunch of dick-less leaders on the world stage who will not stand up. I think they need to be making the democratic demand and say, "We're not going to allow this stuff." They are all excited, they're all ready to go to Obama's inauguration, all these world leaders. Well before you go to the inauguration guys, they're going to have to count the votes in the United States.

And again, I'm not an Obama supporter at all. I'm sorry, he's not my cup of tea, but that doesn't matter. I'm much more scared about an unelected government of any type.

NP: So how do we ultimately fix our democracy? Everyone knows there's a problem, but no one's doing anything to fix it. How do we resolve that?

GP: Well, don't wait for the political parties to fix it man. That's why Kennedy and I are acting on our own...The problem is both parties are complicit. The Republicans are better at it. The Republicans do it systematically using computers in the millions, and have a multi-million dollar fund to attack voters, which the Democrats don't have. But that doesn't mean that the Democrats aren't complicit, and that doesn't mean that the Democrats give a shit about the new, vulnerable voters. The current politicians weren't elected by these people.

NP: Obviously the Republicans have been very blatant in the way they've carried out the culling of the electoral roles and the manipulation of the law -- I'd expect that from Republicans, it's what they do -- but for me what's been amazing is that the silence has been deafening on the other side.

GP: Yeah, well, let's put it this way. In Florida we saw them knock off so-called felons. They did that in Colorado, they just knocked off tens of thousands of people as so-called "felon voters." Well, you know what? Felons have a right to vote in Colorado, so why are they eliminating ex-cons at all?

The answer is the Democrats don't want to talk about the fact that eighty-five percent of all ex-cons vote Democratic. It's a class issue. So the Democrats, God forbid that they should stand up and say, "You can't take away those voters' rights." Because they're going to say, "Yeah, but they'll accuse us of being in favor of criminals. We can't stand up against their purges because they'll say, 'Oh, we are in favor of ACORN and it's voter fraud.'"

We had Obama, who's ACORN's lawyer, stand up and say when McCain accused ACORN, which registered a million voters against official resistance, they ought to get the goddamned Nobel Prize for that, instead, McCain accuses them of being un-patriotic and Obama's response is, "Well I was their lawyer but I really don't have anything to do with them." You gutless, dick-less, little shithead! How dare you! How dare you walk away! I don't like this crap.

I understand it. I understand why Obama's doing it. He doesn't want to be seen associating with black folk, and be seen as the black candidate. He doesn't want to be associated with people accused of vote fraud -- it's a complete fucking lie -- but he's not going to answer the lie. He's going to just keep smiling, and hope that enough people will be charmed, and enough young, new voters will flood in, and he can buy enough TV ads to just overwhelm the steal. But you know, I'm worried about that. I'm worried about that because we need to empower the people who are getting screwed.

The low-rider community, these are young people who chop and channel their Chevys and all that stuff, they had a big, massive voter registration drive in Espanola, New Mexico. These people tried to go in to vote, these young kids, and they asked for all kinds of wacky ID, and everything else. They got the whole Jos Crow treatment. They were treated like dog food, and they're handed provisional ballots and all kinds of cockamamie excuses why they couldn't vote...who's going to defend these people? It's not going to be the Democratic Party, so you defend your own vote. Steal back your own vote. Don't wait for someone to take care of you.

NP: It does mean that you can't be a mouse on Election Day doesn't it?

GP: Yeah. One thing I like about Suicide Gils is, reading some of the articles and stuff, you're talking to a group of people who are like in your face. Women who don't want to eat shit and are proud of themselves. Well now let's extend that to voting. They don't want you to vote. You're a young, new voter. They got all kinds of goddamn rules to make sure you don't vote. They don't like you. They don't want you there. OK, well get in their face. You gotta vote because they don't want you to. You got to vote early because they're trying to screw you, and you gotta screw 'em back. So they steal your vote, you steal it back.

That's one of the reasons I was happy to hear about this interview. This is exactly the group that is being targeted by purges, by denial of registration. I bet you have a ton of your readers who have registered to vote, filled out a form, and think that they're registered and they aren't because they didn't go past the verification process, which is brand new to America.

We've never had this business before where when you register they have to verify your name against a government list. They just screw it up. You got a hyphenated name, a Hispanic hyphenated name, or you got a double-barreled name, forget it man, they'll probably never get that one right. And so I'm really happy to speak to Suicide Girls because this is a group who has the nuts, the stuff there to face the bad guys. That's what's needed. There is a kind of courage now required in voting, because if people go in and they're given provisional ballots and shrug their shoulders and go, "Oh, OK," then you're screwed.

You can download Greg Palast and Robert F. Kennedy's Steal Back Your Vote voter guide at StealBackYourVote.org.

Leave your questions and stories of your voting experiences in the comments section below. Greg has promised to check back in and respond.